The government believes that Edwards received kickbacks totaling up to $2 million from companies that performed work for the water board, the sources say. The money, according to the sources, was routed through Edwards' Third Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, located on Piety Street in the Desire area.

Records show that MCCI was not incorporated until after it had already begun a multimillion-dollar job assessing the damage Katrina's floodwaters caused to the water and sewer systems. Workers for the firm, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Times-Picayune in 2006 that a "B. Edwards" who signed MCCI's invoices is Bruce Edwards, a brother of Benjamin Edwards. It's unclear whether Bruce Edwards is a target of the probe.

Benjamin Edwards, who did not return phone calls for this story, has denied that his brother worked for the company, which raked in at least $2.5 million from the post-Katrina inspection work. His lawyer, Robert Jenkins, said that "the reverend maintains his innocence and denies any kickbacks in any form and any manner."

Coleman, who runs Greater Light Ministries, does not claim a background in engineering or construction. When a Times-Picayune reporter in 2006 asked him to describe his work for the water board, Coleman called it "recognizance." He refused to discuss it further at the time.

Coleman was also one of a small group of African-American ministers who publicly supported Nagin early in his tenure, when a coalition of powerful black pastors challenged Nagin and sought to portray him as a tool of white interests.

Sources have said Coleman recently testified before a federal grand jury investigating the S&WB deals.

Jones declined to comment for this story. Coleman did not respond to several e-mail messages seeking comment. His lawyer, Morris Reed, could not be reached.

Federal authorities subpoenaed documents related to JLJ and the MCCI inspection work more than three years ago. At the time, Edwards dismissed the investigation, saying authorities were hoping to silence him because of his outspokenness.

Nagin, meanwhile, has said he played no role in getting the work for MCCI, and he said he had not sought Edwards' help in his re-election campaign. Nagin's campaign manager, the late Jim Carvin, said in 2006 that he had never heard of Edwards.

While Edwards, 55, is hardly a household name to most New Orleanians, he's a very familiar face to City Hall insiders. He is by far the longest-serving member of the 13-member water board, having been appointed 20 years ago by Mayor Sidney Barthelemy. Though new mayors typically stack the board with allies, Edwards was reappointed by Mayor Marc Morial. His current term expired in late 2003, but Nagin has allowed him to continue serving without a reappointment.

Edwards is best-known on the S&WB for his passionate advocacy on behalf of minority-owned companies; he complains bitterly when he thinks a board contractor is skirting the board's rules requiring prime vendors to subcontract some of their work to firms that have registered as "disadvantaged business enterprises."

At times, he has lobbied on behalf of specific minority-owned firms, rather than simply attempting to uphold the principle that such firms should have a share of board business.

JLJ has been a favorite cause for him. Since Edwards' appointment, JLJ has been a frequent recipient of contracts there, usually serving as a subcontractor to a larger firm. On occasion, Edwards has publicly commended JLJ's work.

Edwards' activism has won him a fair share of critics, who say he is the embodiment of the sort of patronage politics that has often plagued such boards. A 2001 article in Gambit noted that, alone among board members, Edwards often attended pre-bid meetings for contractors. The article also noted that Edwards had on one occasion arranged for the water board to pay JLJ to clean up lots affiliated with Third Shiloh's housing arm. Not only was it unclear why the water board was performing such work, JLJ did not submit the lowst bid for it, the article said -- but Edwards intervened, directing staff to give the work to JLJ.

It was not Edwards' only controversial episode on the board.

In fact, soon after his appointment, Edwards ran up a huge water bill, and his service was cut off in 1990. An irate Edwards directed employees to restore his service, and they did, in apparent violation of policy. One worker chronicled the episode in a memo titled "Rudeness of Board Member Ben Edwards;" Edwards filed a counter-complaint, saying that as a board member, "he had the right to call anyone he wanted and also expect their compliance with any business he requested."

Barthelemy, who had appointed Edwards just a year earlier, asked him to resign over the episode, but Edwards refused. For his part, Edwards told reporters that S&WB employees were trying to discredit him because he raised sensitive issues at the agency dealing with, among other matters, the treatment of black workers.

After Nagin was elected on a pro-business platform in 2002, he indicated he was looking for a replacement for Edwards, though he allowed that he was getting pressure to keep him.

"He's got people lobbying me for him to stay on the board, and I just haven't made a decision," Nagin said at the time. "If I do do something, I would probably find another minister or preacher in the community that is interested in serving."

But Nagin never made a change, and Edwards eventually morphed into a big Nagin fan, often fawning over him at board meetings.

And after Katrina, Edwards raised eyebrows by pumping roughly $270,000 into Nagin's re-election effort, money he claimed to have raised from relatives. While campaign contributions are normally capped at $5,000 per individual or company, Edwards' spending was not subject to that cap because it was considered an "independent expenditure" -- that is, work that was not coordinated with the Nagin campaign. Edwards' spending was about 13 percent of what the Nagin campaign itself -- which had difficulty raising money -- spent on the mayor's re-election.

Most of Edwards' money went to billboards and radio ads aimed at Katrina evacuees in cities such as Memphis, Houston and Atlanta.

Asked at the time to explain his enthusiasm for Nagin, Edwards said: "I think he did a superb job during the storm. I think he showed leadership like I've never seen before. I'm not getting anything out of this. I just want to make sure we get the right man in office."

Along with the independent expenditures, Edwards also donated $5,000 to Nagin's campaign directly through Third Shiloh. The campaign later returned the money because churches are not allowed to make campaign contributions.

Edwards was fined $7,400 by the state ethics board in 2007 for failing to meet various deadlines for reporting his political spending.

Since Nagin's re-election, Edwards has been an outspoken opponent of a couple of proposed political reforms in New Orleans. He helped scuttle a plan to professionalize the membership of the water board, saying that the real impetus for the plan was to disenfranchise poor people and minorities.

Edwards was also a vocal critic of a proposal to increase transparency in the way New Orleans mayors award contracts.

In the midst of a heated debate, Edwards sought to explain the skepticism he said many black residents felt about the matter.

"What many African-Americans don't understand is why now and why New Orleans? You have Jefferson Parish, you have St. Tammany Parish and St. Bernard. Why always Orleans?" he said.

Gordon Russell can be reached at grussell@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3347.